Friday, April 26

kent started out day 10 finishing up a few cuts and adjustments to the lower framework.

he spent the rest of days 10 and 11 building the upper cabinet framework for the pantry/laundry room.

my enthusiasm came back!!! i was thrilled to envision my future with user-friendly laundry storage and a pantry?!?!?! we had made do, until this point, with open shelving against that wall for a pantry. not attractive, very difficult to keep organized, and a total misuse of space! i couldn't wait for this fancy room to be finished ;)

extra credit for anyone who noticed i have more thinset to deal with on the pantry wall!!! just when i thought i was finished ;)

Thursday, April 25

this girl was pretty excited about looking for glasses. it took her a bit of coaxing and discussing, but i found this on pinterest. and that is how i got her on board. period.

we tried on a bunch of frames from a bunch of stores

but these were the clear winner - she wanted them and really wanted nothing to do with any of the others. they are dark brown (although they look black) with pink on the inside. that pink was all she needed.

Tuesday, April 23

on day 7, kent built the framework for the lower cabinets and put down some vinyl flooring for our sink cabinet.

my job over the weekend was to paint and fill! i painted a couple of coats on the upper cabinets and tackled the backsplash. i tried sanding the thinset but it would not budge.
i decided to fill it in to start with as smooth a surface as i could get. it worked! but i went through a few quart buckets of plaster to finish the job and my triceps were on fire by the time saturday night came!

since it was the weekend, weston tackled the demo of the laundry room to give kent more time to build instead of tear down. he's such a man ;) he brought it all down easily and we tossed the scrap into the dumpster. i kind of liked having a huge box out front that i could put anything into! going to miss it when we send it back ;)

this room had existing cabinets, but they all had fixed shelves and most of my laundry containers and supplies wouldn't fit in the space allowed. i am really excited to see this room when it's finished. i might end up using it more than the kitchen! ;)

the wall on the left is where our "pantry" is. we had been using open shelving that we brought in and there were a couple of upper cabinets, but we had the same problem - we couldn't use much because anything that would fit had to be a specific size... boo. i'm having kent build essentially a wall of cabinets there for pantry and kitchen appliance storage. should be perdy when it's all done!

Monday, April 22

at night, i painted the walls behind the upper cabinets they had installed. on day 5, kent tackled what was the fan/vent in the kitchen ceiling. we never used it and since we were going to have a mounted microwave with it's own fan, we opted to take it out and patch the hole. taking it out proved to be kind of a nightmare. weston had tried un-mounting it from inside, but the way it had been installed wouldn't allow a complete removal. kent opted to cut it out! i was in the living room with the baby when he started and once i smelled smoke, i had to see what was going on!

pretty great photo op ;)

i mean, how many people can say they've watched fireworks from inside their kitchen? ;)

that night, i got busy and primed the first series of cabinets. oil based primer. yuck to work with because you have to work smoothly and quickly. but yay to every other aspect of the stuff! it sands like a dream and cleaning brushes is actually quite simple - both great surprises.

on day 6, kent built the upper cabinet for over the fridge and prepped the lower walls for ground wiring and cabinet framework.

ps - see all that old thinset on the wall under the cabinets? so that's the thinset from the original 1953 aqua tile (i would kind of love to see the original kitchen!)

whichever owner installed the beadboard did so over the top of the thinset. hey, i don't blame them, i would have done the same thing; and at least they pulled almost all the tile off. but the thinset? that stuff is like cement!!

once we ripped off the beadboard, though, i had to deal with it if i wanted to move ahead with my plan for subway tile..

Friday, April 19

day 4 was a busy day. it was kent's first day on the job, he and weston pulled out the lower cabinets and closed off the plumbing. i loaded our rented dumpster with all the wood and scraps, and we even gave away the sink for free! kent said, "put it out on your sidewalk with a 'free' sign and it will be gone by lunchtime." i didn't believe him - at all. but, he was totally right. i didn't even have time to put a sign out! we carried it to the sidewalk and the next thing i knew, a guy drove up and asked what we were going to do with it!

kent got right to work and had weston for the day to help. together, they built and installed the upper framework for the cabinets.

kent built out a rough frame for the dishwasher - the only reconfiguring we did in the kitchen was to move the dishwasher next to the fridge (instead of where it was, leaving us with a blind corner where that stepladder is - we could never use that corner space or even have access to it), new sink and faucet, and adding a couple of new cabinets not previously there. i was thrilled to see things go up on the walls; little did i know, my jobs were just beginning... and my enthusiasm, which felt endless, would come to a swift halt once those paint cans came into play..

i had already stained the wood countertops so they would have time to set up before being installed. i know my husband, for one, thought i was jumping the gun tackling this (i think i started about a full week before building got started) but i knew better - i didn't want sawdust and dirt flying all over the stain once it was on! because i wanted them so dark, the stain really had to sit and saturate for quite a time. and because of that process, the drying literally took days. sure, i was crazy to put it on my brand new carpet (!) but i had lots of plastic and lots of reminders to my kids to stay off ;)

Thursday, April 18

my parents wanted to help us with our kitchen renovation any way they could, so they offered to come help us pack up the kitchen since our builder wouldn't be here for a few days to start the demo. we started filling boxes and totes with dishes and cookware and after about an hour, the whole place was emptied out. as my mom and i were off talking about the big plans, i'm sure, my dad had started taking doors off cabinets and was casually taking a look at how the cabinets should come apart. next thing i knew, i walked by and he was pulling everything down!

awesome!! weston joined him and together, they had the uppers taken down and in pieces within another hour or two.

at lunchtime, we took my parents to cafe rio as an underwhelming way to say thank you. we left the kitchen looking like this - it all came off so quickly. i was overjoyed!

when kent, the builder, showed up on tuesday, the lower cabinets pulled out from the wall pretty easily, the men moved appliances out of the kitchen, and then things really got moving...

Monday, April 8

ever since we moved in, i had big plans to replace the carpet. i'm guessing it's not that old, is in pretty good shape, and is a neutral color. fine. but i could not stand the length of the twist! twist at all, really. but it wasso long and shaggy, i had to vacuum like north-south, then east-west, and then repeat at least once... still after all those passes with a vacuum cleaner, i was picking things up by hand after i finished. beyond annoying.

i got the compromise from weston to go ahead and replace the carpet, and there was a great promotion going on, so we went for it. it was only in three rooms, so the scope of the job wasn't all that great. i picked a neutral gray color, plush, super soft, nylon fiber. i love it!

Monday, April 1

we have 9 o'clock church so easter morning was an early morning. the girls found easter baskets the bunny left them with a few goodies each. then they hunted for eggs all over the living and dining rooms.

eggs everywhere! it's kind of hilarious how they are hidden in plain sight and are crazy bright colors but beth will just walk right by!

and poor beth kept finding the real, hard-boiled eggs instead of the candy filled ones :) we had to really help her out for a minute to kind of level the playing field ;)